“Two mothers to be”

Meditation – Saturday, May 31, 2025

Luke 1: 39-57 (Forward, p. 33) CEV p. 1055

I cannot underplay just how important this meeting of kindred souls must have been for these two ‘mothers to be.’ Elizabeth was in the final months of her surprise pregnancy and Mary was just a short distance ‘along’, and so they certainly would have been a great support to each other in this regard. In addition, there would have been the emotional support they could offer to each other: Elizabeth had been through years and years of feeling marginalized and ostracized due to her reputed barrenness and Mary was just about to enter her own inner purgatory, her own social rejection, on account of the status of her child. (Certainly, the news of Joseph not being the natural father seems to have ‘gotten out’ pretty quickly).

But this was not all: spiritually speaking there was a real boost to both of them. Mary herself would have been elated, and felt blessed and encouraged, by Elizabeth’s immediate response. Elizabeth knew, somehow, that Mary was bearing her Saviour, her Lord, and so too did her unborn child, the future John the Baptist. What a reaffirmation that must have been to Mary. And, for Elizabeth, knowing that she, of all people, the formerly despised and rejected one, should receive a blessing from the mother of the future Messiah. What a blessing and privilege. I can only imagine what their time together might have been like, and what conversations they might have had, these two mothers to be, these two women, but I’m sure that it was a most blessed and wonderful time.

This made me think of the people that God brings into our lives, some by someone’s deliberate action and some seemingly ‘accidental’, and yet prove to be a great blessing and help to us. Thanks be to God for such people.

Forward notes: “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’” (verses 46-47).

Commemoration: The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“The day began in darkness as we all piled onto a bus, half asleep. As we made our way to Alabama, the group of newly minted seminarians I was a part of heard the story of Jonathan Myrick Daniels from someone who had known him. We heard how hearing Mary’s hymn of praise during Evensong one afternoon had compelled him to leave his seminary studies in New England to work for civil rights in the South. We heard how that work led to his martyrdom outside of a store.

“When we arrived in the town square in Hayneville, Alabama, the first thing I noticed was the oppressive heat. But I also remember the coolness of the stone on which Daniels died. As I stood in the shadow of one who bore Christ’s light to the world even unto death, I understood in a new way the cost of following Jesus.”

Moving Forward: “Pray through the verses of today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke. Listen for God in them.”